


A-Lister

by Tastefulcucumber



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Photography, Student!Phil, actor!dan, alternate universe - dan's an actor, dan is really famous, dan stars in movies, phil is a fan girl, phil is really not, teenage heart throb dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-01 18:30:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5216207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tastefulcucumber/pseuds/Tastefulcucumber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil's Dad owns a small photography business. Daniel Howell, academy-award winning actor decides that Lester's Portraits is the best place to get his head-shots for his portfolio. He expects to get his pictures taken, but what he doesn't expect is the photographer's son to be so captivating. No one else has treated Dan this normal since the beginning of his acting career. Maybe that's just what Dan needs, a friend who is there for him, and not for his status.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Guess what?” An older man asks his son during dinner.

“What?” The son replies.

“I got Daniel Howell as a client next week.”

“Wow, really? Nice.”

“Maybe that will boost business, you think?” The older man asks enthusiastically

“Probably.”

Eric Lester owns a small photography business in London. The most famous person to step foot in the little shop was a local meteorologist for Channel 7 News. So the fact that Actor Daniel Howell was coming to get his portrait taken for his portfolio at Lester’s Portraits was a big deal.

“Are you going to come with me and see him?”

“That would be kind of weird, dad.”

As much as Eric Lester’s son, Phil, would love to see Daniel Howell in person he finds that it would be slightly creepy and intimating to meet him when all he is trying to do is get his picture taken

“Why?”

“I never meet your clients, that would be weird. Just because this one is a A-list celebrity doesn’t make it any less weird.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

* * *

 

But I doesn’t matter how sure Phil was, because he ended up having no choice but to go to his father’s business on Thursday at 3:40 P.M. – the exact same time as Daniel Howell’s appointment.

“Dad, can’t you just drop me off at home, then go back to work?” Phil asks his father, as he gets in the black Impala.

“There just isn’t enough time. His appointment is at 3:40 and it’s 3:20 right now. Maybe if you got out of school earlier-”

“It’s not my fault I had to ask Mr. Higgins a question! He wouldn’t stop telling some stupid story about his children to someone, which is why I got out late!”

“You’re just going to have to come with me. I can’t make the trip to the house and back without being late!” Eric Lester responded tensely. Phil got the message, he was going with him and that was final.

“Whatever.”

* * *

 

There were teenage girls _everywhere_. Some held signs, some were shaking so much that the looked as if they would explode. Was this all for Daniel Howell? How do these girls even know that Daniel Howell had an appointment today at this time? It’s not like he would be stupid enough to tell people where his appointments are. He must realize how famous he is, and that if he mentions going out to do something that people will follow.

“Look at all this free publicity!” Eric mentions excitedly. At least Phil’s father was happy about all the people.

The got into the building with minimal shoving. One of the girls screamed, “Where is he!” Phil rolled his eyes.

“You wait for him to arrive. I need to set up the camera. If he gets here before I’m finished, just tell him what I’m doing.” Phil’s father runs off into a room in the back, and leaves Phil alone in the front of the building.

There is a small lounge area in one corner, so Phil takes a seat on the couch facing away from the windows so he doesn’t have to watch the hoard of crazy fan girls. Phil gets out is phone and plays on it as he waits.

* * *

 

Dan was only slightly surprised at the crowd waiting for him. They always seem to know where he is, even if the only people he tells is his family and manager. Wanting to just get this over with, Dan parks his car on the side of the street and hopes to god that none of the girls tries to touch him.

“There he is!” Oh boy.

And so it begins.

“Can I have your autograph?!”

“Dan, Dan! Look over here!” Followed by a shutter and a click.

“Dan! I heard you slept with Kylie Jenner!”

“I love you!”

Dan didn’t stop to sign any autographs, or take any pictures. He focused on his target – getting into the door.

“Dan! I’m naming my first born son after you!” Dan almost laughed at that one. Almost.

“Dan! How’s Kylie?” Dan has never meet Kylie Jenner once in his life.

“Dan, I want you!” Eck.

“Oh my gosh it’s Connor!” Connor was a character Dan played in his newest movie.

“You’re so sexy, Dan!” Do these people have no filter?

* * *

 

Phil watched as Dan made his way through the crowd. He almost felt bad for him. He had a glazed over expression on his face and Phil saw him sigh.

* * *

 

‘Oh, no. One of them has made it into the building.’ Dan thought to himself as he saw Phil sitting on the couch as he walked in. He was still in his school uniform, so Dan knew he had to be one of them.

‘This one actually had the balls to come inside!’ Dan waited for the questions. An autograph, or maybe a photo?

“Daniel Howell?” The school boy asks him. Dan waits for the questions to come, but when they don’t he responds.

“Yes?”

“The camera is being set up, so just wait here for a minute.” The boy says. So maybe he isn’t a fan? Dan tries to hold back his confusion.

“Do you work here?”

“No, just the owner’s kid.”

“Oh.” There was an awkward silence until one of the girls outside decided to tap on the window and mouth ‘I love you’ against it.

Oh, bother.

“I know you’re famous and all that, but does your fan club follow you everywhere?” The boy asks.

So he does know who Dan is?. And he’s talking to him like he’s normal, and not an academy award-winning actor?

“I shouldn’t have tweeted about going outside today.” Dan says simply. That just gives the fans reasons to stalk him. They wanted to find out where I was going, so they did.

* * *

 

Phil wanted to ask for his autograph, it was true. But he refrained from doing so. Daniel Howell’s face when he walked through the crowd was enough to tell Phil that he was not in the mood.

When they started talking to each other, Phil tried to remain as calm as he could. He imagined talking to a friend. But inside, he was screaming. He was having a conversation with _the_ Daniel Howell. He was so talented. He was so good-looking in his leather jacket and black skinny jeans. He was much taller in real life, even taller than Phil: who happened to be taller than most.

Whenever Phil looked him in the eyes, he tried not to get lost in the brown and gold flecked irises.

* * *

 

A man walks into the room, interrupting the conversation that Dan was slightly enjoying. The man looked around fifty, with graying hair and wrinkled features. His eyes were kind, but looked too excited.   
  
“A bit early, I see.” Dan was only ten minutes early. “That’s good, it gives us more time to look over the photos. I’m Eric, nice to meet you.” He holds out his hand, and Dan shakes it. “Alright, let’s get started shall we?”

* * *

 

Phil watched them walk off into the other room, and let out a breath once they were out of sight.

Dan-freaking-Howell.  
Wow.

The star of Phil’s favorite book-turned-into-a-movie – Unwind.

He still can’t believe that the conversation happened. Dan Howell talked to him! Him! Oh wait until his friends find out! But wait, should he tell his friends? Wouldn’t that be weird? Almost like an invasion of privacy for Daniel Howell?

Phil knows that his father’s photo shoots last at least two hours. First his father takes the photos, then he sits down at his computer in his small office and goes through every single one of the photos taken. Then he takes his clients through the editing process, letting the client choose what needs to be edited and what should stay.

Phil gets out his earphones from his backpack that is lying against the side of the couch, and gets out his textbook to do some homework.

It’s really hard to focus on homework when images of Daniel Howell in his leather jacket keeps floating through one’s mind.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Phil didn’t finish much homework. He was left just staring at the mathmatics problem, trying to decipher how he was suppose to even attempt to do what it asked him. He ended up staring blankly and daydreaming what he was going to say to a certain celebrity.

Would Daniel Howell even acknowledge him, or walk straight past him out of the building? Would he nod, or say ‘bye’? Probably not, but a guy can dream.

Fortunately, Phil didn’t have to wait too long to figure out his question, as he heard his father’s peppy tone coming closer and closer.

“I’ll make sure to send the three you’ve picked out to you’re manager, I’m sure he’ll have an opinion.” Phil’s dad voice rang throughout the building.

A door started to squeak open, and Phil darted his head to the sound.

“Yes, I’m sure too.” Daniel’s soft voice was so much different from Eric’s loud, chipper tone.

Daniel Howell’s eyes darted straight to Phil’s when he walked in, and Phil forced himself to not look away.

“I’m going to go send them the unedited versions right now, so they can suggest edits as well.”

“Alright. I’m sure my manager and parents are going to want to see them as soon as possible.”

Phil’s father turned back around and left through the same door way that they just arrive through, which left Phil allow with the one and only Daniel Howell.

Phil prepared himself for Daniel to walk out without acknologing his existence. What he wasn’t prepared for though, is for the actor to over to him and looked down at his textbook.

“I remember when I had homework.” He sighed, and Phil tilted the book towards him so he could have a better view.

“Do you even go to school?” Daniel Howell was seventeen, a year younger than himself, not that Phil looked up his age on Wikipedia or anything…

“Yeah, but it’s not really school.” He paused before adding, “It’s more like being forced to do really simple maths problems that a primary school student could do. It’s a bit degrading, actually. Then I have one essay to do, and I have three months to do it. It’s literally a personal narrative. I could right it in an hour, but they gave me three months to finnish it, so I might as well procrastinate.”

“Do you even have the option to go to school then?”

“Not really. I did last year, before I landed that role in Unwind. I was in all the advanced classes. Every subject that I get taught now is making me less intelligent instead of more.”

“What maths class where you in?” Phil asks, looking back down at his problem and wondering if Mr. “I was in all the advanced classes” could tell him how to do his stupid problem.

“Right now I’m in geometry, but last year I was taking A-Level Calculus.”

“Wow, that’s a drop.”

“Isn’t it, though? Why do you ask?” And Daniel chuckled a bit, which made Phil redden, before adding, “Need help?”

Phil swallowed his pride before saying, “Yes, actually. I have no fucking idea what I am doing.”  
Daniel laughed again, and moved Phil’s galaxy-printed back pack from the couch, and sat down in its place.

Phil held his breath.

“What number?” Daniel asks. He leans into to Phil to see the textbook. Phil let go of his breath to make sure his voice was steady.

“Sixteen.”

Daniel took the book from Phil’s lap, and their fingers touched for half a second. Phil took another breath.

“Graph the velocity and acceleration of the function s(t).”

“I can do it if I knew what the function was, but it just gives the graph.”

“Here.” Daniel hold out his hand, and Phil guesses he wants his notebook and pencil to write something down.

“So what you do,” He takes the supplies from Phil, “Is graph the slope of the graph. Just guess what the slope is, don’t calculate it. That takes forever.” Daniel made two lines on Phils paper to make a graph. “What do you think the slope of this section here is?”

Phil looks at the graph, a third polynomial function.

“Well, it’s positive.”

“Okay, good. Lets just call it one.” And Dan creates a point on his graph at one. “Now how about here?” He points to the peak of the function.”

“Zero.”

“Good.” And makes a point at zero.

“Wait. How do you know what the x-coordinate is?”

“The x-coordinate doesn’t change. See how it’s one here? It’s one here too. The y is the one that changes. The y is based on the slope at that point.”

“Okay.”

“So at three it is zero, and you see how the slope gets less and less before it approaches zero?”

“Yes.”

“So we make our velocity graph go closer to zero before three. That way it’s a curve.” He connects the points with a gradual curve. “Now the slope is?”

“Negative.”

“So we go below the axis.” Dan makes his graph dip below his axis. “Now it’s going back up to zero again.” He curves the line up to zero.

“And now its positive again. This is making a parabola. I should have known, this is a third degree graph.”

“So if you had the function, and took the derivative to get the velocity, then it would be something x squared. Which is what this graph is. Do you think you can do acceleration?”

“Now that I know what I’m doing, yes.”

“It feels good to do more complex maths.” Handing the book and notebook over to Phil.

“Tired of your Pythagorean Theorem, are you?” Phil teases.

“God yes.” Phil watches as Daniel shifts his body to grab his phone from his pants pocket. He unlocks it and then groans. “I’ve got to get going.”

“Oh, okay.” Dan doesn’t stand up though, instead he turns to Phil.

“What’s your name? I just realized I never asked?” Daniel questions.

‘I just realized you cared to know.’ Phil thinks to himself.

“Philip Lester.”

“I just thought of something.”

“And that is?” Phil asks, genuinely curious.

“How am I to help you with you’re maths anymore if there is no way to contact you?”

Phil’s entire face heated up.

“Would you want to?” Phil asks, almost shyly.

“Definitely. It’s nice to be treated like a normal person, for once. Do you have a phone?”

Phil reaches next to him to pull out his phone, with his headphones wrapped around it.

“Let me put my number in.”

Phil couldn’t believe that this was happening. He unplugged his headphones after checking that his music was off, then went into his contacts and hit ‘add’.

Daniel took the phone from him, and entered his number. When he gave it back, Phil noticed that Daniel labeled himself as ‘maths buddy ;)’.

“Text me real quick.” Dan said, holding his own phone now to await the message. Phil typed in ‘maths buddy ;)? Lol’.

He heard Daniel snicker and watched as he tapped on his phone.

“I’m labeling you as just Phil, not Philip. That okay?”

“Fine, I prefer Phil to Philip anyway.”

“Good.” Daniel sat up, and turned to face his new contact. “I’m trusting you with my number, you know. Not many people get that privilege.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll guard it with my life.” Phil did a little salute, which Daniel laughed at. Phil loved it when he laughed.

“Thank you. I really need to get going now.”

“Where are you going?”

“I need to be on set for some movie in a little less than an hour.”

“Oh really, which one?” Phil hoped that he didn’t come off as too curious.

“It’s called Everlost.” Phil’s face instantly lit up.

“No way! Like, the book Everlost?”

“You’ve read it?” Noting his enthusiasm.

“It’s one of my favorites!”

“I haven’t yet. I’m planning on it though.”

“You should, it’s great. There’s two more in the series.”

“Yeah, we’re going to be doing the trilogy. Third one is going to get split up into two parts.”

“Ew, why?”

“The reason they do that is because the last book of a series is normally the longest, so in order to get the most detail, they cut it in half.”

“They could also make one giant movie!”

Daniel giggled. “That’s not how it works, I’ll tell you more later. I got to go though. Text me?”

“Yep.”

Daniel walked to the entrance, where there was still some fans crowding around.

“See you.” Dan said, before taking a very obvious breathy sigh.

“Enjoy trying to get out of here.”

“I know, right. Well here goes nothing.”

And as soon as Daniel Howell opened the door, a chorus of girls' screams erupted. Daniel didn’t look back as he let the door swing close behind him.

Oh. My. God. Phil got his _phone number_? Daniel Howell helped him with his homework?

“What the hell…” Phil whispered to himself. He couldn’t believe that actually just happened.

* * *

 

It was almost midnight when Phil’s phone vibrated against his duvet.

  
Maths buddie ;)  
Hey I just got done. U sleeping?

  
‘Not anymore!’ Phil thought to himself.

You  
No who needs sleep psh

Maths buddie ;)  
A calc student that’s who

You  
Its only 12 I can sleep later

Maths buddie ;)  
Good

You  
How was your set-ing or whatever you call it

Maths buddie ;)  
Lol I didn’t actually do much I wasn’t in any of the scenes we did. I guses I was just there for emotional support

You  
You never did tell me who you were playing

  
Phil privately hoped that he would play the character called ‘Speedo’. Speedo wasn’t in the book much, but one thing Phil remember most about him was that he was always dripping wet, wearing a speedo. The backstory to the character is much to long to describe.

Maths buddie ;)  
Mickey Mcgill

You  
Playing a monster are you? You aren’t going to have too many parts for this movie. The mcgill is probably going to be all cgi isn’t it

  
Maths buddie ;)  
I’ll get some good parts in the next movie. Its kind of a relief to not have a big part.

You  
I’ll bet

Maths buddie ;)  
So you obviously have read the book if you know the characters. You should see the set sometime

You  
I bet that would be cool

Maths buddie ;)  
No serious, you want to see the set? I get really bored after a while of not having many parts

Phil put his hand over his mouth. No fucking way Daniel Howell wanted to bring him to the set of one of his favorite books turned movie!

You  
Seriously like serirous?

Maths buddie ;)  
Lol yes please come with me I get lonely.

  
“Holy shit!” Phil exclaimed into the darkness of his bedroom.

You  
If your serious I would love to

Maths buddie ;)  
You busy after school tommorow?

You  
Im Never busy psh

Maths buddie ;)  
I can’t pick you up at school but if you could get a ride to your dads studio then I could pick you up there. I wont tell anyone, not even my family so hopefully no ones going to swarm us

You  
Ill ask dad in the morning

Maths buddie ;)  
Cool I hope he says yes

  
“Me too…” Phil tried to contain his excitement, but he was almost exploding with it. Daniel Howell. How did he befriend Daniel Howell!

* * *

 

Dan stared up at his chandelier on his bedroom ceiling, trying to ignore the pounding in his chest, and the strange knots in his stomach.

It was just some guy that he wants to hang out with. No big deal. Why is his heart pounding? What the fuck is up with the butterflies in his stomache?


	3. Chapter 3

Phil  
He said yes

You  
Awesome! Ill pick you up around three thirty?

Phil  
Sounds ace

Oh god, did he really type ace? Dan laughed at that, and put down his phone.

“Mum!” Dan shouted throughout the house. She probably can’t here him, as his house is a three story mansion.

“Yes!” Or maybe she can? Dan heads towards the sound of his mother’s voice, which led him into the living room.

“I’m going to bring a friend later today.”

His mother stands up from the designer chair she was siting in, surprised.

“Who’s that?”

“Just somebody I met the other day. He’s not bad, trust me.”

“Daniel, we talked about this.”

“He’s not bad!” Dan defended, knowing what his mother was thinking.

She thinks that any friend Dan makes is going to use him, which is probably most people he meets, but not Phil. Phil’s different.

“What’s their name?”

“Philip Lester.”

“Lester? Like Lester’s Portraits?”

“Yes. He’s the photographer’s son. He’s really nice, trust me. And he was so calm around me, mum! We talked about school and I helped him with math. Everlost is, like, his favorite book. I told him I’d show him around the set. He’s not like everyone else.”

“How is he getting there?”

“I’ll take him. He’s got school, but I’ll pick him up and be at the set before four.”

“Did you confirm this with his parents?”

“He told me this morning that they said it was okay-”

“How did he tell you that?”

“He messaged-”

“You know you’re not suppose to give out your number!”

“He promised he wouldn’t give it out to anyone!”

“Why do you trust him? You’re always so careful! I don’t want to have to get you a knew phone again!”

Why does Dan trust him? Phil could give out his number to anyone, if he wanted to. How does Dan know he won’t?

“I just know he won’t give it out.”

“Dan…”

“He won’t!”

“I’m not comfortable with you riding alone with a stranger.”

“But he’s not a stranger!”

“Listen, honey. I know he’s cute, but you can’t throw caution out the window for some crush!” Oh boy, tell a mother her son is bisexual one time…

“How do you know that I like him like that? I don’t have a crush on him!” He’s not entirely sure though.

“Daniel, I don’t like this-”

“Please! Just trust me with this one! I haven’t had a friend in a whole year!”

“Daniel-”

“Pleeaaaasseee?” Dan has resorted to begging now, his hands are clasped together and his bottom lip is extended.

His mother sighs, “If something happens you call 911, you here me?”

“Thank you!” And he gives his mum a quick hug before running upstairs to pick out what he’s going to wear to go meet Phil.

* * *

 

The school day couldn’t have gone slower. Each minute was like two, and Phil couldn’t stop twitting his thumbs and shaking his leg.

“Calm down, I know it’s Friday, but you don’t have to be so fidgety!” Phil looks across the cafeteria table at one of his friends, Zoe. Phil tries to calm his limbs.

He couldn’t concentration on any of his classes, either. The only class he really excelled in was his maths class, as they were going over the homework, and Phil happened to be the only one who got question sixteen perfect.

He almost ran out of the school at three p.m., and quickly got to the parking lot where his father picks him up from school on his lunch hour.

“How did you manage to schmooze Daniel Howell into taking you to work with him?” Phil’s dad asks him as he hops in the car.

“No idea.”

“Well, he must like something about you, what did you say to him?”

“He helped me with my math homework.”

“And you let him?!”

“He was pretty good at explaining it. We just got along well.”

When they finally got to the studio, Phil grabbed a spare change of clothes he keeps in a dressing room cupboard, and changes. There was no way he was going to see Dan in his uniform again. The clothes that were in the cupboard were just a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a red t-shirt. He looked around the studio to see if a jacket was lying around anywhere, and he found a black one of his dad’s in the office. He wouldn’t mind Phil taking it, he thinks.

Daniel Howell came into the studio about twenty minutes after Phil arrived. Phil was obsesivly fixing his hair in the mirror in the dressing room, when he heard the tinkle of a bell, signaling someone came inside. Phil quickly rushed to the entrance.

There he was. Once again, Daniel Howell stood in the doorway of Lester’s Portraits. Phil noticed how his face lit up when Phil came into the room.

“Ready?”

“Extremely.”

Phil tried to avoid eye-fucking the celebrity, but that was a challenge considering how his deep red sweater was tight against his body, and how the collar was low enough to show of his deep-set shoulder bones.

The car ride wasn’t awkward, like Phil thought it would be. They had a really good conversation on their favorite bands and why the last movie of a book series is always split in half.

When they finally got to the filming studio, Phil wasn’t too impressed. It looked like a plain white building, that was it. That was before he actually stepped inside.

The hustle and bustle was ridiculous. People were everywhere, swarming around to do their jobs. It was dark, except for the actual set, where there was a green screen and props set up on the green floor. There was a giant camera in front of the set, where some person was clicking some buttons on.

“Daniel, who’s this?” An older man wearing a suit and a earpiece in his ear comes up to us, his arms crossed.

“This is Phil. I don’t have any actual lines today, so I thought I would bring him along so I’m not too bored.”

“Fair enough.” Then he turns to Phil, “I never see you around before. It’s nice to meet you.” The man holds out his hand, and Phil takes it. Then he turns around and walks away.

“Who was that?” Phil asks, turning his attention back to Dan.

“My manager, Richard.”

“Oh. What’s it like to have a manager?”

“It’s like a third parent.”

“Oh, ew.”

“Tell me about it. Want a water?” Dan asks, and points to a long table full water bottles and fruit trays.

“No thanks.”

“Lets walk around, I’ll tell you about whats happening.”

“Sounds good.”

They walk around the set, and Daniel points to people and describes what they are doing.

“And lastly, the cast. Where are they?” Dan adds that last part to himself. He was right, though. The only people here was the stage crew. No actors were around.

“Getting make-up-ed?”

“Maybe? That reminds me, do you want to meet someone?”

“Who?”

“My cosmetologist. You’ll love her.”

“Alright.”

Dan lead Phil through the crowd of people, and out a door into a brightly lit hallway.

“This way.”

Dan leads Phil through the hall until they reach a door that looks identical to all the others they passed. How does Dan know what door is which?

Dan knocks, and there is a pause before the door flys open, revealing a pink-haired woman of about thirty.

“Oh, hello honey! You’re not performing today, are you?”

“No not today. But look, I made a friend!” Dan stepped out of the way so the woman could see.

Dan called Phil his friend? Was Phil his friend?

“Oh hello! I’m Louise, Dan’s face-perfector.”

Dan’s face is already perfect, but Phil would never say that out loud.

“Face perfector? Sure okay, my face can never be perfect.”

“Your face is always perfect.” Phil blurted out, causing both of them to blush. Maybe he would say that out loud…

Louise looked at both of them, smirking.

“I definitely agree with that.” Louise said, braking the tension.

“Louise can do anything, she can create scratches or make it look my face is peeling off. It’s really cool.” Dan said to get off the topic of his ‘perfect’ face.

“I sometimes also just do Dan’s normal face make up.”

“Don’t tell him I wear makeup! Wow thanks Louise.”

“You don’t look like you’re wearing makeup.” Phil mentions, and leans into Dan’s face to look for signs of makeup.

“He’s not right now. He normally does though. Not like womens’ makeup, I still put cover up and eyeliner.”

“Eyeliner?” Phil accuses, which makes Dan bashful.

“It looks good!” Louise insists. “Here, I’ll show you.” Louise walks into her office, and Dan follows, gesturing for Phil to join.

“Are you allergic to anything?” She asks Phil.

“No? Well, a tad bit to cats. And I can’t have dairy.”

“That’s adorable.” Dan mentions quietly, and Phil tries to hide a smile.

Louise digs through her draws in a vanity, and grabs a black tube.

“This is eyeliner. Come here, Phil.” And Phil obeys. “Now close your eyes.” He does, and Louise gently applies the liquid eyeliner onto his top and bottom lids. “Now don’t open them until I tell you, or you’ll screw it up.” Phil nods.

“Nice looking, isn’t he?” Louise whispers in Dan’s ear. That causes Dan to jump, then blush furiously. He doesn’t respond, but gives a quick nod.

“Okay it should be good now.” Louise announces, and Phil opens his eyes. “See, it looks nice.”

Phil looks at himself in the mirror. He has to admit, the black around his eyes certainly does bring out the blue of his irises.

Dan is swooning. Phil’s eyes are much brighter with the darkness around them. The blue was showing the most, but the hints of green and gold were brought out as well.

“Your turn.” Louise said to Dan. Dan just rolled his eyes, then closed them. He already knew the drill. Count to thirty seconds before opening your eyes after liquid eyeliner is applied.

When he finally opened his eyes, Phil says, “It looks like we’re about to start an Emo band.” Which makes Dan laugh and roll his eyes at the same time.

Just then, Louise’s phone rings, which she picks up immediately.

“Yes. Okay, be right there.” And she hangs up.

“Got to go, Hannah is out so I have to do Emma’s hair and makeup. You guys can stay in here, if you want.” And she hurries off out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

“So my face is perfect, is it?” Dan teases, pushing Phil slightly to tell him that he is joking around.

“Sorry, that was an awkward thing to say.”

“It was cute.”

“Awkward cute.”

“Do you want to watch people get yelled at now?” Dan switches subjects.

“Yes!” Phil says enthusiastically.

“Lets go back to the set. And trust me, yelling is fun unless it’s you who is being yelled at.”

They walk back to the set just as the actors and actresses get into their positions on the green screen floor.

Dan leads Phil into a corner of the room so they can watch without the actors seeing them.

“ACTION!” A loud voice shouts, and the actors start saying their parts. Dan and Phil watch as they try to perfect their scene, doing some parts over and over again.

“Take 5, everyone. Nice job.” The director tell the cast, and they all happily start chatting to each other about the scene.

“So that’s how you make a movie.” Phil comments, awestruck.

“Basically. Now you see why it takes forever for movies to come out.”

“Who are you playing again?”

“Mikey Mcgill.”

“You know, the Mcgill has to be handsome, right?” Phil teases, shoving Dan a bit.

“So are you calling me handsome or ugly?”

“Both.”

“I like to think you were calling me handsome.” Phil rolls his eyes.

“Well, you wouldn’t have to have people tell you how good looking you are. Don’t you know it already?” Dan blushes.

“Maybe you should play the Mcgill. You are much better looking than me.”

What? Phil’s heartrate increases. He thinks about how Dan called him handsome, basically.

“I wouldn’t be a good Mickey Mcgill. Mickey Mcgill needs deep brown eyes,” Dan doesn’t know what makes him do it, but he takes a step closer. “And brown hair with just the right amount of gold.” Dan shuffles even closer, and Phil shifts his fringe for him. “And a voice as smooth as honey.”

Phil’s voice drops to a whisper. “And lips softer than a feather.”

Dan has no self-control as he leans into his new friend, bringing them even closer. He wants to do it. He wants to kiss him.

‘Fuck it’ Dan thinks as he wraps his arms around Phil and pushes their lips together.

“Like that?” Dan breathes against Phil’s mouth.

“Just like that.”

And Dan doesn’t hesitate to push Phil against the corner of the wall and replace his lips on his, much more rough than last time. Phil puts his arms around Dan’s shoulders, and lets his hand shift up into his hair.

Dan just realizes how public they are being.

“Shit.” Dan mutters and quickly removes himself from his new ‘friend’.

“Okay, no one was watching us.” Dan says as he looks around the studio.

All Phil can say is, “Wow.”

 


	4. Chapter 4

It was in between the as seen on tv items and the candy bars.

Phil was waiting in line at Rocko’s Pharmacy Center. His main mission at the store was to load up on some pain killers that his father sent him to get. So, like a proper son, he took the half a mile route down to the local drug store. He expected to go in, get the medicine, and head back to the photography shop. What he didn’t expect was to see himself on the cover of People’s Magazine. 

The magazine showed two silhouettes wrapped around each other in a dark corner. All Phil could see of himself was a whisp of black hair and his arm wrapped around the head of a very famous celebrity. It was quite obvious, even without the face showing, that the celebrity was Daniel Howell. 

The headline read: “Dan Howell, Gay?” 

Very creative, the editors of People’s Magazine.

Phil grabbed the magazine from its stand, and flipped it to the requested, ‘See page 32’. The picture was there again, but smaller, and without a giant headline. Then, next to that, was another picture. Same dark room, same corner, but the only difference was Dan’s head was turned to where the camera was. How did he not see that pictures were being taken? The flash was off, obviously, from the low quality photos. Maybe he just didn’t see the camera. Maybe he didn’t want to tell me he seen a camera?

A rather long article was placed around the two photos:

“Actor Daniel James Howell, star of the new up and coming movie “Everlost” was spotted near the set of the new film with a mystery man. Howell obviously wasn’t concerned on keeping his new relationship, or even more shocking, new sexuality, hidden from the public as he was seen snogging with his new bo. Howell never declared his sexuality, but it was safe to assume that many people are surprised with the new information. Fans of the teen celeb are outraged at the news. Internet forms are raving about the update, and fans are making their unhappiness known. One fan states,

“If I had known he [Howell] was a queer, I wouldn’t have ever started my blog about him!”

But the comments aren’t all negative. With all the hate, the LGBT+ community is happy to welcome Howell into, “An open door, and open arms.” 

Will Howell’s out-of-the-closet decision pave the way for other teens and adults alike to make the trip also? Like it or not, Howell may just be the poster child the LGBT+ community was looking for. Howell has yet to comment on recent events.”

 

Everything about the article made Phil cringe. The magazine made it sound like it was Dan’s decision to be exploited to the public. Like he wouldn’t mind finding out that his privacy had been obliterated. 

Phil whipped out his phone and rang him up as soon as he finnished the article. It rang a few times before a quiet, “Hello?”, was heard. 

“We have an… Issue.” Phil started out carefully, still studying the magazine.

“Phil? Oh no, I know, I just heard- I’m so sorry- I don’t know why anyone would even be- I mean- I never thought-” It all came rushed and confused. The person in front of Phil was finally done with the cash register, and Phil through the bottle of painkillers and the magazine on the counter. 

“Hold on a second.” Phil told Dan, and finished purchasing his items. 

Once everything was bagged up, Phil walked out the store and stood a few steps from the entrance. 

“You still there?” Phil asked into the phone.

“Yes, what happened?” Dan asked, concerned. 

“I just had to pay for some things.”

“What things?”

“Some pain killers and People’s Magazine.”

“Oh, Phil! I’m so sorry. I’ll fix this, okay?” Dan was about to say more before Phil interrupted him. 

“You can’t even tell its me in the picture. It’s you I’m worried about. Have you read the article?”

“No.”

“Please never read the article.”

“Why? What does it say?”

“Some good, some bad. Mostly bad.”

“What’s the good?”

“Well, you’re welcome to become the face of the LGBT community.”

“Oh my god. What the hell is the bad?”

“You have lots of fans that aren’t too happy with recent events.”

“Who cares about them? Not me. I don’t want fans if they don’t appreciate me for who I am.”

“They shouldn’t even know who you are!”

“What am I going to do?” Dan sounded desperate.

“Nothing? It will become old news eventually.”

“It’s going to be on E! News. Entertainment Tonight. Talk shows.”

“Then it will be old news.”

“I’ve had people call my manager asking for interviews.”

“Just decline-”

“They want a name. They want to know who ‘Dan’s Gay Pal’ is.”

“Say you rather not share him with the public. It sounds more sincere that way. Less, ‘get out of my personal life’.”

“I don’t know.”  
“I don’t know eaither.”

“I could tweet about it. Just a little confirmation. A little bit of, ‘Okay here, now get out of my face’.”

“What would you even say?”

“How about, ‘Hey, I’m not gay.’” Not gay?

“What are you then?”

“Maybe I should say something more specific. Like, “Bi is fly”.”

“Bi is fly?”

“Is that dumb?”

“A bit, but it might clear up some sexuality confusions. And repair broken hearts of fan girls.”

“I’ll figure something out.” He says, not so confidently. “But-”

“But what?”

“But, I just thought of something. I’m going to have to wait to go outside for a while. Until the news calms down a bit.”

“You are doing a movie though-”

“Yeah, well, I’ll go back and forth from set to home. But I’m not risking going out anywhere. Er- what I mean to say is,” His voice dropped to a mutter, “How am I going to say this…”

“What?”

“I- um- we- I can’t risk- For you, I mean, its for your safety that this happens.”

“What happens?”

“I can’t been seen with you,” Phil tried to make that hurt less than it did. “At least, not until everything calms down. I mean- I want to see you.” He gives a nervous chuckle as he says, “I really want to see you.”

“It’s okay. Lets make a plan here.”

“Um, right. Well, lets make a date. But not soon. Like, a date in two weeks. Schedual a time to risk being seen. But we couldn’t go out anywhere. Just say at home or something. But this wouldn’t be for a while. And it would have to be my house. I don’t want anyone to find out where you live. And would you even want to see me again, is a better question. I mean-” Dan gets cut off from his nervous babbling. 

“Two weeks. Your house. It’s a date.”

“Two weeks. That would be…” There was a moment of hesitation, “October 25th.” 

“October 25th.” Phil confirmed.

“It’s a date?”

“It’s a date.” He repeated. 

“Heh, okay. Now that’s settled.”

“How am I going to wait a full two weeks to see you again?” Phil attempted to flirt. 

“We’ll have to manage. Phone calls. Texting.”

“Facetime me?”

“I’ll Facetime you.”

“Good.”

“I need to figure out what I’m going to tweet.”

“How about, ‘I’ve heard the exciting news! Too bad it’s incorrect. Bi is fly.’”

“That is so cheesy.”

“Then figure out something yourself!”

“I’ll make my mum do it. She’s good at covering stuff up.”

“Go ask her.”

“I’d have to hang up and caller her.”

“I don’t mind, I need to get home anyway.”

“But I’ll call you soon.”

“Please?”

“Okay. I marked the date, by the way. October 25th. Its in my calender.”

“Go ask your mum what to tweet now.”

“Okay. Get home safe.”

“Thanks. Don’t screw up your tweet.”

“Thanks.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Two weeks? Phil ran his hand through his hair, and started off on his half a mile trip back to his father. A small headache started to bother Phil, so he grabbed the bottle of pain killers and popped two, swallowing them dry. 

Two weeks.


	5. Chapter 5

Two weeks is almost exactly how long it took the media to move to a new subjects. Adele’s child getting into a fight at school. Does this have to do with parenting? How could music sensation Adele let this happen to her own child?

Yeah, it’s a big eye-roller.

It wasn’t October 25th yet, but Dan decided that October 22nd was close enough to the 25th, and that calling Phil up and inviting him over for the first could be done without the vultures that are the press finding there way into that information.

Phil’s privacy is the most important issue at the moment.

Dan thinks it’s time to risk it.

Dan sits upside-down on his bed, head leaning off the end. He is holding his phone up in the air, and dials Phil’s number, hoping that in the week that they haven’t been in contact he hadn’t changed it at all.

The phone only rang once.

“Dan?” Phil sounded concerned.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“What’s wrong? You’re not suppose to contact me yet. We have three days left!”

“Oh, no, nothing is wrong.” Dan comforts him. “I just noticed that no one is talking about me anymore. Not online, nor those Entertainment News shows. Do you mind if we hurry up the waiting process?”

“I wouldn’t mind at all. I even started crossing off days in my calendar until the 25th.”

Dan chuckled and muttered, “You’re adorable.” Phil didn’t respond, but if they were in the same room Dan would be able to see the extreme blush that rose in Phil’s cheeks. “So,” Dan continued, not sure if Phil even heard him say that first line, “Would you want to come over sometime today or tomorrow. I mean, you could be busy. It’s okay to tell me no, I just thought sense-”

“I’d love to. But, one, I don’t know where you live, and two, if it’s far, I won’t be able to get a taxi. I have five pounds on me.”

“I live a hour outside of London. Don’t you live in London?”

“Yes, but I can’t afford a taxi all the way to-”

“How about to the Studio?”

“Well, I can walk there, its not far.”

“Want me to pick you up there? That way, just in case anyone is following me, they won’t know where you live.”

“Yeah, that would make sense.” Phil agreeds.

“Alright, when do you want to do this?”

“When are you available?”  
“Now?”

“Meet up at the studio?”

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll see you soon,” Phil hesitated before quickly adding, “I’ve missed you.” And hanging up the phone. Did he say the right thing? Why did he say that to Daniel Howell?

What Phil couldn’t see that would have calmed his nerves was the large grin that spread across Daniel Howell’s face, and the bashful color that flooded his cheeks. Phil didn’t get to see the way Dan put his head in his hands, trying to rub the sheepish grin off his face. He rolled off his bed, and practically ran downstairs to grab his black aviator jacket, tell his mum that he would be going out, and then ran out the door without as much as a ‘goodbye’.

Phil, on the other hand, jumped out of the recliner he was sitting in, and went into the laundry room as fast as he could to get out of his Star Wars pajama bottoms and into fresh pair of jeans. He stuffed his phone into the pocket in his hoodie he already had been wearing, and started to make the half a mile track to Lester’s Portraits.

Phil got there before Dan did, so he went into the bathroom and kept messing with his hair until he heard the ringing of the bell signaling that someone had walked into the shop. Phil hurried down the hall into the entranceway to see Dan fiddling with an orange and yellow tulip in between his fingers.

  
Dan broke into a large smile and muttered shyly, “Hi.” He pushed the flower towards Phil.

“Is this for me?” Phil asked, replicating his smile.

“Yeah, well I just saw this at a little flower stand- so-” Phil could sense his nervousness.

“I love it, thank you.” Phil gave him a short hug. “Now what do you want to do today?”

“Well, I would love to show you around Oxshott, if you don’t mind the long drive that is…”

Oxshott? “That’s in Surrey, right?”

“Glad to see you know geography.” Dan teased.

Phil wanted to add that he had never been to such a wealthy part of Britain. He refrained from mentioning their very different standards of living. Daniel didn’t have to know how the fiver in his back pocket was probably the most he ever carries at one time. Daniel probably has a fifty pound note in his glovebox or something. Heck, his glove box is probably made of gold.

They went out to the car, which turned out to be a 2014 Impala, and not a 2016 BMW like Phil thought it would have been. When Phil got into the passenger’s seat, he also noticed how the glove box wasn’t made of gold and the stacks of paper that were in the back seat.

“What are those for?” He asked, pointed back at the pile of papers and manila folders.

“Just applications.”

Those were some big applications… Oh, to be an Actor. Wait, doesn’t he have people for that?

“For you’re job?”

“Yeah, some scripts aren’t going to be even released until a few months from now. I get an early copy, occasionally. It depends on what company the film is going through.”

“Don’t you have,” Phil asked hesitantly, “People to fill that stuff out for you?”

Dan gave a dry laugh. “I could but I rather read the fine print myself, honestly. Make sure there isn’t anything that I don’t want to agree to that someone else would think is fine.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Nudity, dangerous stunts. Sometimes there is a contract hidden in the applications that say I can’t apply for anything else well it’s being processed, which I try to avoid.”

“Would someone not tell you about those kinds of things, then?”

“If the money’s good enough.”

Phil thought on that a bit.

  
The drive wasn’t as long as it would seem. They played road games like, how many people over 70 have passed us, and count the yellow cars. They talked about Dan’s career, which Phil was really interested in. Dan didn’t mind though, because he knew it could be an interesting topic. They talked about what school subjects they liked, or for Dan, used to like. They talked about what would happen after they die, and how Phil gets his hair so perfect. They talked about their parents, and how Phil’s mother and brother are away visiting family. They talked about Dan’s nosy mother and his uncaring father and how they treat him like an adult even when he is only just a teenager. They talk about how freedom is about perspective, depending on how much freedom you are used to having. Phil talked about his trips to Flordia and Dan talked about his trips to India and Botswana. Phil found out how intelligent Dan really was. He wasn’t someone who let everyone else do his work for him, like most performers. He took pride in his hard work, which Phil really admired.

After less than a hour, Dan pulled into a one way lane that led up to a giant black fence, which was closed.

“Did you go the wrong way?”

“No, just stay here for a secound.” Dan put the car in park and got out. He walked over to the fence and pressed into a small button. Phil watched as Dan started talking to the fence. A loud creaking sound sound started and the fence opened inwards.

Dan got back into the car and put on his seatbelt as if nothing happened.

“What was that?”

“You got to be paged in.” Dan replied simply.

They continued down the one way lane. After a minute, large three, four, and five story houses started to come into view. The road merged with the one way going out, and the path started curve around. Every house they passed had a driveway at least half a kilometer long. The yards were about the size of its own house. Every home they passed was clean with some sort of garden in the front yard. They passed houses with turrets and large flags in the front yard. They passed a five-story brick mansion that looked to be a thousand years old. Some of the homes where newer, too.

Wait, did Dan live in this neighborhood?

About ten houses in, Dan pulled into one of the long driveways. The house was one of the smaller ones, well, smaller for this neighborhood. It was three stories with a two car garage that didn’t connect with the house. It was made of red brick foundation and dark grey stone walls. A rather large inclosed porch covered most of the front of the house.

Dan stopped when they got up to the garage. “Well. Here we are.”

Phil didn’t know what to expect when visiting Daniel Howell’s home, but he didn’t expect anything so… prestigious.

“Who all lives here? Oxshott, I mean.” Phil asked, watching Dan open the door and climb out of the car.

“Lawyers, MP’s, a Lord, other well-off people.”

“Actors.” Phil got out of the car too, being careful not to slam the door.

“I’m probably the only one. Then again, I don’t really go out and meet the neighbors ever.” Dan gestured to follow him up the path to the house.”

“This must suck in winter. I’d fall down so many times when this path gets icy. ” Phil said mostly to himself.

“We have landscapers come out and plow and shovel and all that good stuff.”

Hmm.

Dan held the door to the inclosed porch open to him.

“What’s your shoe policy?” Phil suddenly asked.

“My shoe policy.”

“Like, wear socks? No shoes on the carpet?”

“I normally just kick them off in my room.”

“So no policy then?”

“No I guess not. Is that a thing?”

“I have a shoe policy. No shoes on the carpet.”

Dan opened a great french door that led into the house. “After you.”

Phil walked in with Dan close behind him. Well, it was definitely not what he expected. It seemed that they were trying to go for a rustic theme or something, because there was different kinds of animal skins on the wall and fishing lures made into some strange lampshade. The floors were all dark wood with the walls painted a dark red. There was a deer head above a brick fireplace and the furnisher looked purposefully worn.

“They tried to go for the ‘cabin’ theme, if you couldn’t tell.”

“Oh, no, I can tell.”

“Don’t know where mum is but dad is probably in his den.” Phil looked nervous at this.

“But we don’t have to see them right away. Come on, I’ll show you my room.”

Dan led him into a hall which opened up into another living space. This one was decorated similarly to the entrance, only an antler chandelier hanging from the very tall ceiling. There was a large sectional sofa wrapped around an 200cm television. A grand staircase was behind that.

Daniel started up the stairs, so Phil followed him. Not suprizingly, the staircase lead to another living area. This one wasn’t cabin themed, though. It was painted a nice white. There was a desk and a large bookshelf in one corner, and some gym equipment in the other. A cactus was sitting right next to a treadmill.

“I hope you never fall off that thing.” Phil said, pointing at the treadmill.

“Don’t worry,” Dan replys with a grin on his face, “You’ll never see me using it anyways. I call you though, if I ever fall onto a xeric plant.”

“Thank you that would be highly appreciated.”

On the wall opposite of the stair case was an arch that leads into a wide hallway. Doors were on each side of the wall. Dan pointed to each one telling where they led.

“Bathroom, Guest room, Another guest room, closet –spent a lot of time in there- (Get it, Phil, in the closet?), down there on the end is my parents room.” He stopped at a door that was at the very end of the hall, in between the two walls. It lead to , yet again, another, much more steep, staircase. “Upstairs, yeah, I know, stairs suck. But I love it up here.” Phil followed him up more steps, that didn’t lead to anything but another door to the right of the staircase. He opened it up, and it lead to an extremely small hallway now. It was poorly lit and the carpet looked like it was from the eighties –a dark shade of orange, shag carpet- and the one ceiling lamp in the hall was flickering.

“This hall is the hall of horror movies.” Phil mentioned.

“Just imagine trying to get up here went it’s dark.”

This hall only had four doors, one on each side, and what looked like a linen closet on the end.

“Kitchen, bathroom, guest room that no one uses, and my bedroom.”

“Kitchen?”

“An empty kitchen. It’s got a stove, a sink. You can look if you want.”

Phil opened up the door to reveal an unlit, crack tiled kitchen. A fire place that looked like the one downstairs was in a corner. There was a hole where the fridge should have been, but the gas stove and cupboards were still in place, along with an old circular dining table. And three mismatched chairs.

“Used to be servant quarters.” Dan said from behind him. Oh, that makes sense.

“Why do you want to live in the servant quarters?”

“No one bothers you here.” He answered simply.

Dan grabbed his hand to pull him out of the kitchen. Phil looked down at the linked hands then Dan let go.

“Here’s my room, don’t mind the mess.”

Dan opened his bedroom door to reveal an average bedroom. Well, average execpt for the milk crate full of video games, the 100cm tv on the wall, the absence of windows, and a xbox, wii, playstation, ds, and laptop in a pile of cords under the tv. The most Phil has is a gameboy from when he was eight. Dan’s bed took up most of the room as it was a queen or something like that, and the only mess in the room was that the bed was unmade.

“Got enough video games I see.”

“Oh I’ve earned these. What else should I do in my free time, read lines? Just kidding, but yeah I know, it’s a lot. This isn’t the entire room anyways. I use the guestroom as an office of sorts. That one’s got a window and my desktop in it.”

Just then, Phil’s phone started ringing. “It’s my dad, hold on.”

He answered with a , “Hello?”

“I’m a bit behind schedule today so I won’t be home for a few hours. Go ahead and start dinner without me.”

“Oh, actually, I’m at a friends house right now.”

“PJ?”

“No actually, it’s um.” Phil turned to look at Dan, like he was asking permission. Dan nodded once.

“You know the client you had a couple weeks ago?”

“Phil, I’ve had many clients a couple weeks ago.”

“Well, I’m visiting one of them. Do you remember um, Daniel Howell.”

“You’re visiting Daniel Howell?” His dad asked, astonished.

“But if you wouldn’t tell anyone, that would be great. You know…”

“Yeah, yeah I get it. I mean, not really, but-”

“Hey, are you behind schedule? Shouldn’t you be working?”

“Oh, well yes, but-”

“Go back to work, dad”

“Are you in Surrey then? How are you planing on getting home? It’s already six.”

“I’ll figure it out don’t worry, now go back to work.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll see you later then.”

“Bye.”

Phil hung up at looked over at Dan, who was pluging his phone into it’s charger.

“It’s already six.” Phil repeated what his father had said.

“Yeah I realized.”

“We haven’t even gotten to see each other.”

To this, Dan looked up from his phone. “Spend the night.”

“Really?” Phil tried to see if he was kidding or not.

“Yeah, why not? Then we have all Sunday to see each other.”

“Don’t you want to, you know, ask your parents.”

“They won’t care. I can basically do whatever I want. As long as it’s not, you know, dangerous or anything.”

“Well, would you ask them anyways.”

“If you want me to.”

“Please.”

“What a literal goody two-shoes you are,” Dan teased, coming over to Phil, “Literally won’t even stay over without parents permission.” And to this, Dan grabbed the sides of Phil’s waist and started swaying slightly. “Fuck, I’ve missed you.” Dan pushed his forehead against Phil’s. “I’ve literally never missed anyone this much. And I’ve seen you literally three times.”

“You just said literally four times,” Phil laughed, “Calm down.”

“And what if I _literally_ refuse to calm down?”

Phil didn’t know how to feel about ‘Flirty Dan’, but he wanted to see where his limit was.

Phil placed his arms around Dan’s neck, and Dan took that as an invitation.

Their faces leaned slowly into each other. Phil watched as Dan close his eyes-

**_Bz_ **

Dan sprung away from the loud crackling buzz. He looked at Phil apoligitaclly before going over to a vent looking thing on the wall. He pressed a small metal switch in, and said into the grate, “Yes mother?”

There was a burst of crackle before a woman’s voice flooded the room.

“Oh so you are home. I saw your car in the driveway but you wern’t downstairs. Anyways that’s all I just wanted to see if you were up there.”

“Wait, mum.”

“Yes?”

“Can I have a friend over?”

“Which one. You know that-”

“Yes, yes I know. Actually I already have a friend over. It’s Phil. Remember I think I mentioned him.”

“Well if he’s already… How long have you been home?”

“Less than ten minutes.”

“Oh okay never mind. I just wanted to make sure no funny buisness-”

“Okay thank you mum we’ll be right down I know you’ll want to meet him, blah blah blah I’m hanging up now.”

“Don’t-” His mother started before Dan let go of the button he was pressing in. His face was quite red now, and Phil couldn’t figure out why.

“The disadvantage of living the servants quarters. I’ve got an intercom system.”

“That is honestly the coolest thing.”

“Not when you’ve got your mum ringing you up when you clearly have a cell phone she could call me on. But, whatever. Want to go meet her?”

“Well, you kind of already told her we would go down and see her.”

“Yeah, but we don’t have to, if you know what I’m saying.” Dan took a step closer and put his hand up his shirt lifting it up a little bit. ‘Flirty Dan’ was back, but this time Phil put up his shield.

“Let’s go downstairs. You told her you would.”

“Oh, alright.” Dan signed. Then mumbled something that vaguely sounded like a, ‘fuck you mum’.

  
It turns out that Phil and Dan’s mum got along better than Dan and Dan’s mum. Maybe it was the talk about how good Phil was in his classes, or what a good socializer he was, but maybe it was the fact that with every sentence, Phil looked over to Dan. His eyes would soften with every glance. With every added thing Dan added, Phil listened like he wouldn’t be able to hear him ever say anything again.

What Dan’s mum was worried about most when Dan befriended this new boy was that any friend of Dan’s who doesn’t have money already would be friends with him for that reason. It’s happened before. They’d ask him for things. They’d try to get themselves seen with him as much as they could. But Phil really tried to do the opposite. He never asked for anything that needed to be bought. He always made sure Dan was safe when in public, and made sure to keep the privacy to themselves. Most importantly, Phil didn’t look at Dan like he was an object or a fan. He looked at him like he was the light of his life. And Dan, no matter how cold he tried to act, looked at him the same way.

“So,” Dan’s mum started a new topic, “Daniel. Is this the same Phil who shared the newspaper headline with you?”

“… It wasn’t his fault.” Dan instantly hated his mother for bringing the photo into this.

“Oh I know that dear. I won’t say it was anyone’s fault. I was just curious.”

“Yeah, well.”

“So where do you live?” She addresses Phil.

“In the city of London.”

“So in an apartment, I’m guessing. I used to live in London, too. Lived in a two room flat. Bathroom, then everything else. That is until I got a job in Wembley.”

Dan suddenly jumped out of his chair.

“Well, this has been fun, mum but it’s almost nine and I still have to take Phil home.” Dan started. He knew she hates for him to drive at night, so this could be the perfect opportunity to ask her.

“Oh, is that what you were so jittery about? Why not have Phil just stay over. Save the trip, unless that’s not okay with you?” She turns to Phil for his input.

“I’ll check in with my dad. Should I go do that right now?” Phil responded.

“Yes, please go ahead.” Dan answered for her.

“Okay.” Phil got up and left the room, and Dan sat back down in his chair.

Dan watched as his mum smiled over at him.

“What?” He asked, questioning the look. He leaned his hand on his face and frowned at her.

“Nothing.” She responded, and rubbed his knee motheringly.

Less than a minute later, Phil returned.

“Yeah he said it was okay, I’ve got to be home tomorrow, though. School night.”

“Right of course. Well, we have plenty of guest rooms for you, so you and Dan can go up and find one. I’ve been meaning to call your father.”

“Okay. Come on Phil.” Dan grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the stairs.

“Or you could just stay with me.” Dan announced once his mother was out of earshot.

Phil went red.

“But you don’t have to.” Dan continued.

“I think I’d like some company tonight. How about you?”

“Some company tonight would be _lovely_.” Dan responded suavely.

As soon as the got up the two agonizing flights of stairs, Dan clutched to Phil’s waist, pulling him into a deep kiss. Dan took a step backwards, towards the stairs, and Phil pulled them towards the door so he wouldn’t fall down.

“Careful.” Phil breathed on him. He reached behind himself and clumsily opened the door with Dan’s lips still attached to his. Dan kicked it closed again once they got into the dark hall. He pushed Phil up against the wall, his tongue pushing its way into his mouth at the same time. Phil let out a breathy moan.

Phil leaned his head away from Dan, Dan’s tongue rubbing across his at lips releasing with a wet pop.

“Are we really going to do this in a hallway?” Phil said, trying to keep Dan from leaning into him again.

Dan smiled as he rolled his eyes and pulled them into his bedroom.

“Will you fucking just kiss me now?” Dan laughed. His smile was taken off his face, though, when Phil pushed him onto the bed. He climbed on top of him so Dan’s torso was between his legs. Phil leaned down and continued their kiss. Dan grabbed messily onto Phil’s shirt.

Daniel Howell. Phil was making out with Daniel Howell. Who would have thought he would be making out with the Dan Howell? Who would have thought he would be making out with anyone, actually?

Phil came out of his thoughts when he felt his shirt being torn off his back. Phil responded with a moan and helped remove the shirt. Dan took the liberty of wading it up in a ball and throwing it across the room.

Phil really enjoyed the kissing, well, until started to feel Dan runting up against him. He really had no idea what to do after that.

Phil tested slipping off his jacket, and when that was meant with a satisfactory moan, he attempted to lift up on the corners of his black shirt underneath. That was meant with Dan hurriedly throwing off the shirt.

Phil was seriously regretting his choice of being on top now. He had no idea what he was doing. Dan really didn’t either, but he was more willing to try things.

Phil felt hands drop from his waist to his ass, fingers gripping his back pockets on his jeans and then those fingers tugging downward. Dan shoved one hand into the waistband of his jeans and pulled down using that as well. Phil decided to save him the trouble and kick off his pants.

Who would have thought Dan Howell would be trying to take his pants off? Phil was glad that he didn’t go for any embarrassing boxer choices today. Just a simple dark blue-

“Oh my God-” Phil was too lost in thought again to notice how Dan was slipping down his boxers as well, along with him wetting his lips and rapping them around his cock.

Dan took a long breath in then out before begging to bob his head up and down. Phil cautiously placed his fingers in Dan’s hair, subconsciencely guiding his head to where he wanted it to go.

Who would have thought he would have Dan Howell giving him a blowjob? Phil might go as far as saying it was the best one he ever received (and only one he ever received).

Phil started to feel his stomach tighten. He tried to pull off Dan before anything embarrising happened, but Dan wasn’t having it.

“Dan, let, let go please.” Phil breathed heavily. Dan slid off of him, leaving a line off spit coming off with his mouth. He reached to his bedside stand and opened a drawer, pulling a tissue out of it. He wrapped it around Phil for him.

Who would have thought Phil would be coming into Dan Howells hand? Not him, that’s for sure.

Now Phil was really at an impasse. He was still left with a very much hard Dan to deal with. He would have to take the initiative.

Phil began to palm Dan before he could even dispose of the tissue. He decided to let it drop to the ground, hoping he’d remember to pick it up later.

“Not trying to be-” Dan started but was interrupted by his own moan, “to be vulgar here, but if you don’t get me out of these jeans I’m going to fucking come my pants and I really don’t want to do that.”

Phil stifled a laugh as he leaned off of Dan, letting him quickly shove off his jeans and boxers at the same time. Phil layed on top of him, one hand wrapped around his erection, the other behind his back. He pushed his lips onto Dan’s heavily breathing ones, sliding his tongue in like Dan did to him.

It took a few minutes before Dan started panting, “Okay, okay, okay”. Phil reached into the drawer he seen Dan find the tissues in, and pulled one out. Copying what Dan had done, he rapped the tissue around him and held it there. He tried not to grimace when he felt the warm substance come into it. Dan took it out of his hand and threw it to the ground with the other.

“Kiss me.” Dan commanded, Phil rolled to the side of him, and pecked him on the lips.

“Here, lean up a secound-” Phil struggled to get them both into his duvet. They rapped their limbs together under the cover.

“Kiss me again.” Dan almost whined. Phil pecked him again. “Nooo…” Dan let out a long sigh, and Phil pecked him a third time. Then a forth on his nose, and a fifth on his lips again. Dan dug his head into Phil’s neck.

“Kiss me.” Dan murmured into his neck.

Phil gave him one last one on his exposed cheek, and watched as Dan feel asleep to Phil running his fingers through his hair.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this in an hour so please tell me if anything is like 'boy that makes no sense'! Thanks!

“Whoa Phil, is that a hickey?”

Phil had been having a good day so far. It was Monday, and he had no trouble getting up this morning. He read a little good morning text from Dan, which made his day even better. His dad made him breakfast, he was 10 minutes early for school; everything was going great. 

Until now, obviously.

“What?” Phil turned around in his desk to face one of his sort-of friends. The guy was close enough to Phil to think it was socially expectable to exclaim about the stupid bite below his left ear. No one else had even mentioned it before. That would be just a rude thing to do. This guy didn’t care, apparently. 

“Dude who gave you that?” The guy questioned, amazed. 

“What are you even talking about?”

The kid turned to someone that Phil didn’t know very well, so Phil turned back around in his seat. He cringed as he started to hear snickering behind him. 

Just ignore it. Juuustt ignore it.

 

It was hard to ignore the situation he was in for much longer. It literally took less than two class periods for his entire friend group to find out. Along with people he didn’t even know. He saw the occasional glance towards the mark as he walked down the hall. Girls would tap eachother on the shoulder when they thought Phil wasn’t looking and pointed to him. 

Why was this even a big deal? He was very close to being eighteen, he could have some bite on his neck. Lots of people in school do worse hickeys (Even though Phil did too, but they couldn’t possibly know that).

“Bro let me see it.” Phil was at his locker putting books away, and spun around to face who was talking to him. 

“You don’t date?” PJ asked, confused. His faced scrunched up in annoyance. Phil didn’t respond, so PJ continued. “You would tell me if you were dating someone? Right?” Phil didn’t respond again. “Right? Wait… Did you finally hook up with Zoe?”

That, Phil did respond to. “What the Hell? No I didn’t hook up with Zoe. I didn’t hook up with anybody.”

“You are the world’s worst liar.”

“Oh, shove off. Don’t you have a class to get to?” 

“Rude, mate.” But PJ took the hint to leave.

Phil shook his head. 

At lunch, Zoe confronted him in front of the entire table about the spreading rumors of them being together.

“You know that’s not true, Phil! Why would you even say that!” She burst out angrily from across the table. 

“I never said it was! I said it wasn’t!”  
“Well, now the whole school thinks were dating. Way to go.” She stood up to leave the table.

“I didn’t say an- I told people that we weren’t…” Phil tried to stop her from being angry with him, but she just scoffed and sat down a few tables away from theirs. She started talking to the people there. They all looked over to Phil. He quickly put his head down. 

“Tough dude, she won’t even admit it. There is evidence, too!” PJ said, tapping him on the shoulder as if to comfort him.

“I didn’t-” Phil started, but was cut off.

“Yeah, yeah, you didn’t do anything with Zoe. Tell yourself whatever you want. No one believes you.”

“Fucking… I’m leaving.” Phil got up from the table with his tray of food, and no one stopped him. He quickly threw out the food and left the commons.

Everyone was just being stupid. It wasn’t Phil’s fault that he wasn’t a good liar. And it wasn’t Zoe’s fault for getting mad at him either. He gets it. He doesn’t want rumors about him going around either. But shit happens. 

 

Phil called Dan around midnight, texting to see if he was up first. The phone ringed once before a quick and breathless, “Hey”, was heard on the other end.

“Hey.”

“What’s wrong?” Dan asked. Phil already complained about being annoyed over text, and that’s when Dan suggested that they call each other. 

“Be glad you don’t go to public school.”

“What are you talking about? I would do anything to go to public school.”

“Trade?”

“Why, what happened?”

“It’s nothing major. Just kids are dicks.”

“Well, yeah. Did you just figure that out?”

“It just kind of hit me today, actually.”

“What happened?”

“Just some rumors spreading around. I think I lost a friend over it.”

“What are people saying?”

“Nothing. It’s kind of stupid actually.”

“Well, if it was that stupid, you wouldn’t be complaining about it.”

“Some kid said something about something in class. Then that spread and then some girl got sucked into it. It’s not that big of a deal?”

“What did they say?”

Was Phil really this embarrassed to say what he was trying to talk about to the person who gave him the thing in the first place? Yes.

“It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Well, if you really don’t want to talk about it…”

“I really don’t.”

“Well, I hope you feel better. I wish I was there I could make sure you feel better.” Phil blushed, and was glad that Dan wasn’t there to see him do so.

“Shut up.” Phil said, embarrassed. 

“I do! I would give you hugs and kisses and make you some form of hot drink and all that good stuff.”

“Yeah?”

“And I would make you watch dumb movies with me and I would do that awkward yawn-wrap-arm-around-you thing.”

“Would it be just as cheesy as in the dumb movies.”

“Even more so, because I won’t even be nonchalant about it. I’ll just fucking do a ridiculous fake yawn and then make out with you.”

“Oh my God, Dan.” Phil laughed.

“Then I’ll start quoting lies from movies I starred in and you would get so tired of it that you would have to kick me out of your house.”

“I’d more than likely start quoting the lines with you.”

“Then we’d make out some more.”

“Jesus Christ will you stop being so forward.” Phil giggled.

“No, you like it too much.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

 

The next day was so much worse. Phil could barely get out of bed. He didn’t get any breakfast. Dan didn’t text him a good morning. 

When he got to school everyone seemed to be staring. But, on the bright side, no one was talking to him. 

In his first hour class, the same kid who pointed out the bite on his neck poked him in the back, so Phil turned around to face him.

“Why do you have to be such a fake liar?” He spit.

“Excuse me?” This kid must have absolutely no filter.

“Zoe told me all about how much of a liar you are. No one likes you.”

Phil turned back around.

This kid was an idiot. There was nothing wrong with Phil. He didn’t do anything wrong.

His day didn’t get any better when he found a note laying in his locker on top of his stack of books that said, ‘Zoe is such a nice girl, how can you be such a prick? Go kill yourself.’

Well, that was over the top. Why would anyone tell Phil to kill himself? That was extreme. 

At lunch, Phil decided not to risk the lunch room. He went to go sit in the library instead. 

Fuck, even the librarian gave him a dirty look! This was getting out of hand. What had Zoe been saying to everyone? The worst she could be saying is that he lied about dating her, right? And he hadn’t even done that so…

At the end of the school day, Phil was unexpectedly grabbed, and spun around into an adjacent, vacant hallway. 

Four girls, all looking scarily furious with him, pushed him against the wall. Great, now he was getting harassed in packs. 

“You leave Zoe alone!” One in the back said, her face was scrunched up in anger, as if Phil had killed her dog or something.

“She doesn’t need for you to keep stalking her!” The red head who was holding him into the wall spit out.

What? What was the girls even talking about?

“I swear, you try to contact her one more time, I’ll mess you up.” One of the other girls whispered sinisterly. The red head let him off the wall, and they all scattered away into the main hallway.

What was that about? Stalking her? Contacting her? They were friends, so Phil didn’t have her phone number, but he hadn’t texted her in weeks. He hadn’t talked to her since yesterday? What was happening.

When Phil got home, he did something he hadn’t done in a long time. 

He cried.

 

“Then, I opened my locker, and there was a note in there. It literally told me to kill myself. What the fuck is wrong with people?” Phil cried into his cellphone Thursday night. He didn’t want to tell Dan about anything that was happening, but he was so tired after a full week of the same kind of harassment. He didn’t know what to do anymore.

Dan never heard Phil in such hysteria.

“I’m coming over.”

“What?” 

“What’s your address?”

“But, it’s dark. You’re an hour away-”

“Please, baby. What’s your address?”

“212 Greenswane Avenue, it’s on the first floor.”

“London?”

“Yes.”

“I’m getting in my car now.”

Despite the craziness of this past week, what Phil was most concerned with when Dan said he was coming over was how crappy his flat was. Phil tidied his room as much as he could before Dan came over, then attempted to clean up any other messes around the flat. 

“What are you doing, Phil?” His dad asked him when he spotted his son actually picking up the living room. 

“Friends coming over.”

“It’s nine at night?”

“Yeah?”

“Okay, whatever. You’ve got school in the morning, and you are going. I’m going to be in my room. You should invite people more often, makes you clean up after yourself.” 

Phil gave him a humourless laugh, and started to clean off papers from the dining table.

Phil finished picking up as much as he could, with half an hour to spare before Dan would arrive.

That left him plenty of time to remember the past week, leaving him feel as shity as when he comes home from school this past week.

Phil’s hazardous thoughts were interrupted by his phone ringing. He answered it immediately. 

“Hi.”

“Hey, come outside so I can figure out what flat is yours.”

Phil quickly ran out the flat to see Dan waiting at the end of the small concrete porch steps.

Dan didn’t hesitate to run up to Phil and wrap his arms around him. Phil could here his car keys jingling in his hand. 

Phil opened the door and silently let him inside. 

Nothing more embarrassing then crying to you’re celebrity boyfriend only to have him show up to your two bedroom flat just to comfort you.

Phil led him quickly through the small living room, and through the door that led into his bedroom.

“Sorry it’s small.” Phil muttered quietly

“I don’t care about that.” Dan pecked him on the lips. “Your eyes are still red, where’s your bathroom?”

“Next to the front door.”

“Be right back.”

Dan scanned the small living room for the door that Phil directed him towards, and flicked the light on the reveal the 300cm by 150cm bathroom. He opened up a linen closet besides the sink, and pulled out a washcloth. He ran some warm water, and dampened it. This would clear Phil’s red eyes.

“Here,” Dan held out the damp rag to Phil. 

“What am I suppose to do with this?”

Dan took the liberty of resting the rag gently over his eyes. 

“Here, lay down.” Phil was already sitting on the bed. He felt Dan’s hand press on his chest, gently pushing him to lay. 

“Gets rid of the redness.”

“How’d you know that?”

“I’m an actor. I know lots of things that are pretty useful.”

“Like what?”

“How to make yourself sneeze, how to make yourself cry, how to do an American accent.”

“Super useful.”

Dan took the rag off of his eyes. Phil blinked them open.

“Better.” They were significantly less red. 

“I-.” Phil started.

And he was really glad he caught himself before finishing his sentence: “I love you”.

“You what?”

“I’m sad.”

Dan responded by leaning over him and giving him a short kiss.

“Still sad.”

Dan repeated the process, but held out the kiss for longer.

“Still sad.”

“Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Will it have you in it?”

“No, that would just make me cringe. I have netflix on my phone.”

They scanned through the movies and decided to go with a short film called, “Barbados”, which, unsurprisingly happened to be a very boring documentary on the country Barbados. Phil sat up, and Dan joined him on the bed, resting his phone in his hand, and resting his hand on his knee, which wasn’t the most comfortable position, but he wanted to make sure that Phil could see. 

Fifteen minutes in, Dan let out a strangely loud, and fake sounding yawn, before wrapping the arm he wasn’t holding his phone with around Phil. 

“You are such a dork.” Phil giggled, ignoring the documentary and leaning into Dan’s shoulder.

Dan responded with a heated kiss, dropping the phone onto the bed so he could use both hands to wrap Phil into him. 

“Am I your dork?” Dan muttered against him.

“Absolutely.”


	7. Chapter 7

  
“So, I was thinking…” Dan started. He and Phil were laying in Phil’s bed, Dan gently stroking his hair.

“That’s a surprise.” Phil teased.

“Shove off,” He responded playfully. “So you know how I tried really hard to get the media off my back?”

“Course.”

“Well, maybe doing to opposite would solve your problems.”

Phil looked over to him, and Dan paused his petting.

“I mean, if people at your school knew that the person you were… you know… If they knew that was _me_ I’m sure they wouldn’t look down upon you so much. And that girl would have some serious explaining to do.”

“We literally had to wait two weeks before we could see each other, and now you want to announce our relationship to the whole world?” Phil questioned. But that wasn’t the only thing he was questioning. He barely knew Dan. Sure, Phil knew him a bit, and he certainly liked him a lot, but having however many people know that he was his… boyfriend? Right? What happens when they break up? Well, if they break up. Which is more likely than staying together forever, as much as Phil wants that to be the case.

“They wouldn’t know where you live or anything. They’ll honestly not even care about you. The only ones who will care that it’s you who I’m dating is all those whores

“Harsh.” Phil giggled.

“But true. So? What do you say?”

“Oh god, what would my dad say?”

“He would say, ‘wow what a catch! Nice job my boy!’” Dan said, trying to do his best Eric Lester impression.

“I’m not so sure. Well, actually I am sure. Why would he mind? He would think having you around would be great for business. I’m not even going to bother telling him. Fuck everything, post about us on twitter or something. Right now.”

“Seriously, you’re just going to let me. Not even be slightly mad about how much precaution we took previously?”

“It pains me to say this, but: yolo.”

“It pained me to hear that.” Dan reached around Phil to grab his phone off of the end table next to the bed.

“Here, lets take a picture.” Dan opened his camera app.

“My hair’s a mess!”

“My hair’s curly.” Dan replied, rolling his eyes.

“You’re not even wearing a shirt. Are you really going to post a picture like that on the internet?” Phil mentioned tiredly.

“I’m now going to go put on my shirt.” Dan rolled off the bed and pulled his black tee over his head.

“Thank you.”

“Might as well have a nice background as well, lets go outside.”

“It’s night.”

“I have flash.”

“You’re so dumb.”

“Wow thanks.”

“Okay, fine. If you really want a nice picture, let me go fix my hair, you can use my flat iron ; then we’ll go outside and do some kind of cute ‘under the stars’ couple photo.”

“Deal.”

Phil went into the bathroom and combed out his hair, then waited for twenty minutes while watching Dan straighten his hair painfully slowly. Phil teased him as he did it, and Dan reassured him that the sacred art of hair straightening was a slow process.

“Done now?” Phil said as Dan went to unplug the flatiron.

“Ready.”

They went outside and Phil guided him to a street lamp he was thinking about using as a light source.

“Are you sure this is enough light?” Dan asked, gathering his surroundings.

“Who’s the professional’s son? Not you. Now let’s have me take the picture.” Phil reached out for Dan’s phone, who reluctantly gave it to him.

“Smile!” Phil cheered, and snapped the photo. “One more?” Dan nodded. Phil held the phone up a touch higher this time. “Say cheese!”

“No thank y-” Phil cut him off with a kiss and quickly took a photo. “Tricky. Now let me see it.”

Phil handed him back his phone.

“I think we should post both of them.” Dan said.

“Why?”

“This one,” Dan scrolled to the first one they took. “Because you can see our faces, and you look really good in it.” Dan scrolled to the secound one. “And this one, because you can see the stars above us, which is rare for London, and you’re kissing me, which is pretty great too.”

“Shut up.”

“Never. Now lets get posting.”

 

It was crazy, when Phil went to school the next day. It’s as if someone flipped a switch, and now everyone who had been giving him a hard time was instantly his best friend. People were asking him to go to parties, to hang out after school, go to football games, and everything else that Phil would have done even before Zoe messed up his life.

Speaking of Zoe, she had quite the amount of explaining to do. Phil didn’t see her during lunch, or in any classes that they shared. She must have been skipping. He can understand why.

No one even mentioned Dan, though. That’s the craziest thing. Well, no one mentioned Dan until lunch anyway.

“You’re dating Daniel Howell? What the fuck!?”

“Hey to you too, PJ.”

“A. I’m your bestfriend, so it shames me that you have never told me this. B. Do you realize that Daniel Howell isn’t a girl? I know we joke about dating male celebrities, but how the hell… And C. So Zoe was lying? Why would she do that?” PJ looked amazed and concerned all at the same time.

Phil wanted to mention that bestfriends believe eachother and that PJ wasn’t even one of his good friends let along bestfriends, but he didn’t.

“I didn’t tell anyone, not even my dad. Plus, who cares, it’s Daniel Howell.” Phil mentally cringed at the one. “And third, Zoe’s a bitch. I told you she was lying, and she started spreading shit about me that you and everyone else started to believe.”

“Woah woah woah, I never believed the shit that Zoe said.”

“Yeah, well, whatever. It’s behind us now.”

“Wait, does that mean you fucked Dan not Zoe?”

“Dude!”

“Had to be asked.”

“For your information, I haven’t fucked anyone.” Phil adds a mental, ‘Yet’ to that statement.

“That’s good. He’s a _he_ so that would be weird.”

“So weird.” Phil internally rolled his eyes.

“Man. You’re dating an A-List celebrity!”

“I guess so.”

“What’s he like?” Finally, a question Phil felt comfortable answering.

“He’s very caring, and his house is very rustic. Not at all what you would expect. He is good at math, too.”

“Awesome.”

 

* * *

 

  
“Then you take big F of x, and take the integral between 1 and negative 3.” Dan wrote some equations on a sheet of lined paper, and showed it to his boyfriend.

“Is that just substitution, then?”

“Put 1 in, then subtract what you get from that from what you get when you substitute the three. That’s the area.”

“What would I do without you?”

“Probably die.

“Shove off.”

“Never.”

They were at Dan’s house, in the third floor kitchen. Dan was sitting behind Phil, looking over his shoulder, and penciling in things on his maths notebook that was laying in Phil’s lap.

“So… 27 minus 33… but that’s negative?”

“It’s the absolute value of that.”

“Okay so… six.”

“Yep. This area is 6.”

“Okay that’s cool. We should take a break now.”

“Should we?” Dan responded flirtatiously.

“Yeah, I’m tired of ‘Maths Buddy Dan’.”

“What would you like instead?”

“Flirty Dan.” Phil responded shamelessly.

Dan started laughing, but then got quite again. He scooted away from Phil, so he could look him in the eyes.

“You know what?” Dan asked quietly.

“What?”

“I love you.”

“That’s good. Because if you didn’t this would be pretty awkward.”

“What would?”

“Nothing, just that I love you too.”

“You’re so dumb.” Dan teased.

“Shove off.” Phil ran his hand through Dan’s hair.

“Never.”


End file.
